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Is Apple the New Big Brother?
Mark Lennihan / AP Photo
Twenty-five years after tech geeks were liberated from the PC Empire, they started turning on Apple this week for its technological tyranny. Douglas Rushkoff on how David became Goliath.
Has the company that famously satirized the stultifying primacy of IBM-compatible computers in its Orwellian commercial for the 1984 Super Bowl finally emerged as the successor to Big Brother? Jason Calacanis, Web entrepreneur and a longtime Macintosh devotee, this week joined a virtual posse of prominent Internet leaders who now believe Steve Jobs has turned his back on the original promise of Apple to promote creativity and sharing over conformity and restriction. Although they had held off out of respect to Jobs' liver-transplant recovery, now they're out in full force: Jobs is the Devil.
It was supposed to be Bill Gates who turned out to be Satan.
What is being lost on those of us who remember Apple as an alternative to IBM or, better, Bill Gates' Windows evil empire, is that Apple has always been a closed, self-interested, and essentially profit-maximizing enterprise. The point is not that Apple has turned to the dark side. It has not slowly succumbed to the logic of the corporation. It's simply that by becoming a networking company in addition to a computer company, it finally exposed its true core.
Remember, they called themselves Apple—who the heck offered that up in Eden, anyway?
I know. It was supposed to be Bill Gates who turned out to be Satan. Add the letters of his name up in just the right way and you get 666. Ever since Microsoft committed the anticompetitive sin of buying its competitors and bundling a browser with its operating system, cool people everywhere liked to think of them as the technology world's Death Star.
But as Calacanis, TechCrunch, and a growing number of commentators are now noticing, Apple, too, protects its turf in ways that make the networking universe worse, not better. Files on iTunes —and thus iPods—are incompatible with everything else. Applications on iPhones may only be sold and uploaded through the iPhone store—giving Apple control over everything people put on to the devices they thought they owned.
The last straw, however, was Apple's rejection of Google's Voice application for the iPhone, which may have gone just one step too far in protecting the sanctity of its devices from the offerings of competitors. (It’s a big reason Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently left Apple’s board.) It's one thing to reject an application because it breaks copyright, breaks phones, or simply doesn't work. It's another to reject an application because it's great.
Google Voice is an inspired virtual phone-number program (they bought the concept from a company called Grand Central) that lets users have a phone number through which they can do pretty much anything except make calls. Forward it to your phone, your email, your Skype; get voicemail, ping all your phones to find you, get messages online like email, and so on. It's telephony's biggest "killer app" since Skype or even voice-over-IP.
And that's why Apple can't let it live and grow on the iPhone, which—at least for now—is a device dependent on a partnership with the original telecommunications monopoly, AT&T. AT&T subsidizes the iPhone, so that people can spend just a hundred bucks or so and get what amounts to a pocket computer—in return for a cellular contract with an awful carrier.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Douglas Rushkoff, a professor of media studies at The New School University and producer and correspondent for the PBS Frontline Digital Nation project, is the author of numerous books, including Cyberia, ScreenAgers, Media Virus, and, most recently, Life Inc., released this month by Random House.
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Douglas Rushkoff, a professor of media studies at The New School University and producer and correspondent for the PBS Frontline Digital Nation project, is the author of numerous books, including Cyberia, ScreenAgers, Media Virus, and, most recently, Life Inc., released this month by Random House.
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Douglas Rushkoff, a professor of media studies at The New School University and producer and correspondent for the PBS Frontline Digital Nation project, is the author of numerous books, including Cyberia, ScreenAgers, Media Virus, and, most recently, Life Inc., released this month by Random House.
nickjacket
Unlike a new PC, a purchaser of an Apple product must tear open the plastic through a license agreement tag. Tearing it constitutes agreeing with the license terms (how snobby).
In bad times Apple won't want to jeopardize profits by moving toward open-source and in good times not flexing corporate muscle in order to assure a rise in profits is also a no-no (we can't win).
Today I decided not to buy any more iTunes Store media because my iPod didn't agree with Apple for some reason and it wanted me to sign-in. When I tried to sign-in it said that there was an error (with code number) and iTunes deleted all 35 gigabytes of music from the iPod. Later in the morning I was able to sign-in again then synching could take place again between my PC and the iPod. This meant that the iPod that for months had been used as the primary repository of my music was now being synched with my PC which had used the iPod for all synching as the main library between two of my PC's.
Too many glitches and rules. Apple has taken extremes to control my computing experience instead of ensuring it with the look and feel of empowerment.
As for the iPhone, it has plenty of competition in functionality and price. I use my mobile PC with Voice Over IP Vonage and a 3G card to make calls with.
Nice try Apple. You thought I'd follow the crowd into the telephony hall of shame. Well, I threw a mallet into that.
Embers
The same thing happened to my friend -- iTunes deleted all his music, and he had a lot. You should get together with him and all the other people this must have happened to and sue!
Fnordius
Apple has always been slightly schizophrenic, a legacy of the Jobs/Wozniak roots. Jobs was the penultimate end user, and a driving force in getting the device to run like he wanted, but also a control freak as paranoid about someone ruining the perfection he spent so much effort on. Woz was the other side, the geek who comes up with the totally neat stuff and tweaks the device because he actually loves what he does, and Apple still attracts that sort of engineer.
So that's why you get devices like the iPod: uses industry-standard formats like MP3 and AAC, but cloistered in iTunes and the iTunes Store. Openness in Darwin that closes up again with full Mac OS X. The ability to add songs from any source into iTunes, but paranoid lockdown of the iPhone to prevent virus outbreaks.
I think Apple gets away with it because Apple was always playing a different game than Microsoft: instead of playing Monopoly, trying to muscle all others out of the market, Apple's goal is to remain cool, be best of class. Trying the other guy's game led to the disasters of the Nineties, a reason why Gil Amelio and Michael Spindler are such red flags to Apple fans now.
flyoverland
I like everything about my Mac except Al Gore on the Board.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
flyoverland
I am sure there is an insult in there somewhere. I guess it depends what your definition of "good" is.
sophia5
Yep, Gore is a good man alright, practicing what he
preaches with his multiple homes and private jet.
Talk about excessive use of energy.
RussianHatGuy
Cultural Elitists circling the wagons if you ask me. What are hipsters going to do if they can't feel superior in coffee shops anymore? Oh wait, I know, they might actually have to go out and find employment instead of being a "freelance web designer".
Do they have a "locate the unemployment" office app for the iphone? just wondering...
Can't u just hear that happy piano music playing?
RawhideRex
RussianHatGuy
I'm one of those "freelance web designers." I occasionally go to coffee shops to do work. And I work on a PC. And I don't use an iPhone.
I also have an office with two employees. Looking into hiring a third. (yes..that's called expanding one's business) I spent 6 years getting two degrees in communications and design. I know my job and I am good at it. A turned freelancing into a full fledged business.
Just because you work all day to make money for someone else doesn't mean you should be judging other people for their chosen professions. One, because it make it look like you a snob. Two, because you should never judge a book by it's cover.
Now run along....your boss needs his ass kissed...
Steve516
Folks forget so quickly the reasons why Apple does many of the things it does. When it comes to music and the iPod and iTunes, most of the restrictions that exist were designed to appease and comply with the record companies. Plain and simple, cut and dried. DRM is now gone from iTunes after much fighting and bickering.
Next, lets look at the reasons why the Macintosh platform works so well. It works because Apple puts up a list of specific standards that software and hardware produced by third parties have to meet to be compliant. Most would simply call these quality control standards. Like when you order a Mercedes... you expect it will come with the best leather - if it comes with the same leather as a ford taurus, you will be disappointed. Mercedes sets standards that its suppliers must meet. This is how they can assure you that you are getting a damn fine automobile. For Apple, it is the same. They demand quality peripherals and software - if a company can't cut it, they don't make it into the circle of trust.
Over the years, all this adds up to a Mac environment that is virus free, an OS that is stable and powerful, and customers who trust that if they buy an Apple product they are getting a certain level of quality for their dollar.
PacificNWMark
My eyes are just swimming with tears. A company that is 'a profit maximizing enterprise'? One that 'makes for an elegant and robust solution to pretty much everything'? The horror.
Where does TDB find this kind of crap? My Macs - and my PCs, as our household has several of each - all access one network, and one Internet, and share files between platforms. Nothing closed here. My iPhone has music that I've ripped myself, as well as purchased. Nothing closed there either.
The author gets this correctly, and it invalidates the rest of his screed: 'the reason why Apple computers have worked so well over time is that, unlike Microsoft, they don't bend over backward to be compatible with every piece of hardware or software in the digital universe'.
Yes, Apple is in this to make money. Of course. They do this by producing 'elegant and robust solutions' that simply work. And whether technorati like Rushkoff like it, the marketplace - consumers - by and large endorses Apple's approach.
kcbrady
Apple was never holy and MS was never evil. They're just companies, trying to make a profit out of technology.
Foolesgold
@PacificNWMark. You nailed my feelings exactly. Call me a fan boy, but I love everything about my Mac and my iPhone. I do not want a watered down Apple. I want stuff that works when I take it out of the package.Microsoft did everything in their power to drive Apple out of business in the 1990s, so it's easy to understand the protectionism.
The only thing that I would ask is to open up the iPhone to other carriers.
flavor13
Good job waiting for the last paragraph to explain the problem, because without fudging the issue you wouldn't have anything to write about -- apple has just as much trouble with ATT clamping down on communications apps as they have from the Record Labels pressuring them on music formats. Bravo stirring the pot with useless screeds.
lmktacwa
Foolesgold and @PacificNWMark: I'm with you! I love my Mac. I love that it never crashes. I love that I can depend on it 100% to provide me with the home computer I want: Email, pictures, videos and Internet access. PC's suck. sorry folks. I prefer to buy quality packaged with reliability. If Apple wants to stay "closed" so that I am not faced with 8 million viruses, the blue screen of death, slow boot up, and mystery errors from IE, then more power to Apple.
As for the iPhone... well, I have not bought one because it is married to AT&T and they suck. Besides, I use my phone to call people and snap photos. That's it. I have GPS in my car, and I can't imagine what the hell else a person would want to cram onto a phone. A fart app? whatever, grow up.
To each their own.
Pux1304
I would rather live in an Apple World, than an Obama World.
newsponge
I have a PC made of used parts that cost me $100 which runs fantastic. It has a raptor drive that boots very quickly and it hasn't crashed in over a year since I got it.
My iPhone is supposed to be great for business, but even after I spent $20 bucks on an app that allows me to work with excel, etc. I can't actually put my files on the phone unless I pay apple for a mobile me account, even though I hook my phone up to the computer physically all the time to transfer music.
Apple is a fascist company. Their users attitude towards PC's reminds me of republicans afraid that the government will take a way their health care and make them compose a 1,000 word essay on why their grandmother should be allowed to live. I don't plan on getting another iPhone.
Embers
Thank you!
amigosito
Oh please Sony has been doing this for years, at least Apple makes quality products. They have been following the same business model for decades and people are only now speaking up because Apple is now mainstream and other people feel entitled to be a part of their revenue stream because they are accustomed to Microsoft's "build it broken and let someone else make money fixing it" ecosystem.
Apple maintains absolute control wherever possible to maximize profits, yes, but also because they are completely obsessed with quality control. And unlike Microsoft, Apple has consistently embraced industry standards instead of constantly undermining them.
The criticism of their App Store policies is definitely valid, but to open up the iPhone platform beyond the App Store would be a huge gaping security risk.
SteveStone
Slow news day, huh?
WestVillager
Lol.
FactsTravel
The author is mistaken, you can make calls from Google Voice. One giant reason why I am going to get an android phone... You can make a call without android through the web voice portal, which can also be accessed from the iPhone browser.
rushkoff
not for free, though.
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